Scuppernong Prairie is one of the largest natural areas of Wisconsin, possibly even of North America, with an area stretching somewhere around 30 acres. Natural should not mislead anyone, it`s not intact, but still a prairie in a very good shape, maintained by regular restoration efforts and fire management. Of the two parts we were looking at one was a former agricultural land slowly taken over by prairie vegetation, and the other one is a real, remnant prairie patch.
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| Queen Anne`s lace |
The first plant Steve pointed out was Queen Anne`s lace, alias wild carrot (Daucus carota). It`s an exotic invasive, so we`re not happy about it. The coevolution of leaf shapes in the carrot family and its herbivores was simply hilarious, so here it goes:
...Once upon a time, there were carrots. Herbivorous insects were chewing on there leaves, so they invented secondary compounds that the bugs couldn`t eat. But the toxins were activated by sunlight, so the savvy bugs quickly figures that they could roll up the leaves, and chew from the side that was in the shade. The carrots, of course, couldn`t leave it at that, so to get back at the bugs, they developed strongly divided leaves, and laughed at the bugs who were trying to roll them up. We`re currently waiting for the bugs` response to the challenge...
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| hybrid |
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| prairie dock |
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| compass plant |
Next we got to know prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), compass plant (Silphium laciniatum), and their - assumed- hybrid. Normally there are isolating mechanisms at work when it comes to fertilization between species - this is, in fact, one of the criteria when defining species. This is why we can`t mate with a lettuce and produce offspring. Although there are examples of different species producing offspring (horse + donkey = mule), but these are more often than not sterile. There are two ways to ensure that there`s no crossing between species, pre-and postzygotic isolating mechanisms, infertile offspring one of the latter. These prairie dock-compass plant hybrids are typically located at the edges of the prairie, which tells us that normally they wouldn`t survive, but the disturbed habitat allows them to be competitive. Looking at these plants we can see that the leaves are thick and hard, with many little hairs, which are all ways to reduce heavy water loss. Another interesting little fact: in case of compass plant, the outer flowers are fertile, the inner ones are not, which is the complete opposite of how a sunflower works.
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| reed canary grass |
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| mountain mint |
Some other species we pointed out on the go were native mountain mint (Pycnanthemum
virginianum), prairie willow (Salix humilis humilis), and invasive exotic reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), which was imported for the pleasure of cattle, who apparently hate it, but now it`s freakin` everywhere.
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| prairie willow |
We also learned that the way to tell grasses and sedges apart, is to check their stems, because`sedges have edges` and grasses have round stems. If you want to see a sedge, google it. Parts of the prairie we called a shrub carr, which is funny, because carr means shrubby place, so to ensure you really get it, we say it twice. Like those idiots who say something is the most optimal... Even a little change in elevation changes vegetation in the prairie, and this variation in topography favors patches of shrubs at certain places.
As this is a wet mesic prairie, it needs to burn every now and then, otherwise woody things take over. It`s soil is very fertile, which is the precise reason why most of these ecosystems were plowed for agriculture. There is a difference between cutting and burning the prairie, in multiple counts: 1. cutting does not create black, burned patches where temperature is higher than nearby places, 2. legumes lose their advantage if there`s no burn and 3. small seeded plants also loose their advantage if we only cut.
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| goldenrod gall |
Moving on we pointed out goldenrods (Solidago genus) (goldenrods are a pretty big family with multiple species native to Wisconsin), and the fact that often you can find so-called galls on its stems. There are two common insects that form galls, the goldenrod gall fly (Diptera) and the goldenrod gall moth (Lepidoptera). The former lays one larva into the stem of the plant, inducing the plant to form a growth around it, which protects the larva from a parasite that would otherwise lay its eggs into the larva. The adult fly emerges in May.
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| spiderwort |
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| lead plant |
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| rattlesnake master |
We also saw spiderwort (Tradescantia
ohiensis), the stamens of which turn pink to radiation, lead plant (Amorpha canescens), a legume, which does NOT indicate the presence of lead, despite the common misbelief. The last interesting plant we came across was rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), a member of the carrot family (Apiaceae), which looks very much like a monocot with its parallel veins, but is in fact a dicot with an interesting story. It started with normal, carrot-like leaves, but due to the dry climate, it lost most of its blade tissue, with only the mid-rib left. Then the climate became wetter, and it was once again worth having larger leaves, so rattlesnake master flattened and spread its mid-rib - hence the parallel veins. It's leaves are waxy and point to the sun, to prevent water loss.
Last but not least, some observant students spotted a crayfish chimney!
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| crayfish chimney |
